It just wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without me doing some sort of Anatomical Heart Tutorial! Every year I find a way to have a bit of fun with this Not-so-traditional Valentine “Staple”. Two years ago, it was the Chocolate Anatomical Heart Cupcake Toppers, and last year I adorned Dinnerware with Anatomical Hearts. Now I’m back in the kitchen with a No Bake Bleeding Heart Oreo Cookie Cake.
Last year, I made a VERY complicated cake for Valentine’s Day. It was an Open Book Cake…. a cake carved and decorated to look like an open book. I got a ton of accolades for the finished product, but realized the overwhelming response from my readers was that they loved admiring it but weren’t quite ready to take on the challenge of making it themselves. It’s too bad, because the cake really was awesome, but I don’t blame them… not everyone wants to spend hours of their life making a cake.
So, this year I decided to make a much simpler dessert… one that anyone can make.. Trust Me… and one with very few steps. You don’t need to have cake carving skills, cake decorating skills… you don’t even have to have baking skills! While it may not look like the most perfect anatomically correct human heart you’ve ever seen, I’m quite sure it does the job!
I buy a lot of what I like to call “kitchen gadgets”… cooking & baking stamps, molds, pans, tools, decorations, you name it. I see something… have a momentary brilliant idea, have to have it, and then it goes in a box with the rest of my kitchen gadgets… that I swear I’ll be using any day now! So, anytime I decide to get creative in the kitchen, I check out that box of gadgets, and see what I can give a test run. You may remember that is how those Conversation Heart Cookies came about a few weeks ago! In this case, it was a human heart mold that I pulled out of the box. It was the perfect size for a small cake and an idea was born!
There was one little problem. Upon closer examination, I realized that the mold was actually a jello mold. The plastic would never stand up to the heat of an oven, so baking a cake was out. I was disappointed, and because I had set my mind on doing this cake, I didn’t want to give up. Plan B… I tried searching for a large oven friendly heart mold, but came up empty handed. Plan C… I decided to go with a No Bake Cake. Are you really allowed to call it a cake when there’s no baking?? I chose an Oreo Cookie recipe that I’ve used to make Cake Pops. Luckily I found a few packages of those Red Winter Oreo Cookies in the Post Christmas clearance section. It seems next to impossible to find the red Oreo cookies anymore! Unfortunately these were stamped with a bunch of cheesy Christmas images, but since they’d be ground up for the cake, I was willing to overlook the silly images! You do not have to use Red Oreo Cookies to make this cake. I just used mine on the off chance that it would give the “batter” a slight hint of red. I’m not sure it did, but it still seemed befitting to use the red Oreos for a Valentine’s Day dessert of any kind!
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To Make the “Cake”
You will need:
- 1 Box of Oreo Cookies
- 8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
- Heart Mold
Crush the Oreo Cookies. A lot of other similar recipes say to put them in the blender, but that never works for me. I just put a handful at a time in a ziploc bag, and roll over it with a rolling pin until they’re crushed.
Beat the ingredients together until mixed thoroughly.
Transfer the batter into the heart mold. Make sure the batter goes into ALL of the creases of the mold. You will need to take some action to do this. A combination of pressing the batter into all of the crevices before filling the entire mold. As well as knocking the mold against the counter to jostle the batter into the crevices.
Once the mold is completely filled in, level across the base of the heart. This will allow it to sit once it’s made.
Put the mold in the refrigerator or freezer for a few hours to harden into shape. I placed the mold upside down in a bowl so it could sit level.
Once it hardened, pop it out of the mold. Again, this may take a bit of effort. I gently squeezed the mold to loosen it from the Oreo batter, until the heart slid out.
I recommend decorating the heart closer to the time you plan on serving it, so if you’ve made the Oreo heart ahead of time, you can place it on some wax paper and place it back into the fridge or freezer.
Now for the Bloody Mess…
You will need:
- Red Fondant
- Piping Gel
- Red Gel Color
- Black Gel Color
- Cake Decorating Brushes
- Seedless Raspberry Preserve
Before I move onto the next steps, let me state… I am not a professional baker, and I am most definitely not a professional cake decorator. I have no doubt that I use many wrong techniques for decorating a cake. Sometimes I just figure it out as I go along. So, if you’re skilled at rolling and applying fondant, don’t judge! 🙂
Knead the fondant with your hands to make sure there is no cracking. The fondant should be completely smooth before rolling it out.
Dust your work surface with powdered sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking.
Form the fondant into a ball, and begin rolling it out using a fondant rolling pin. Occasionally pick up and rotate or flip the fondant to keep it from sticking.
Roll to 1/8″ thick (or less).
Measure your heart to ensure that your fondant circle is wide enough to cover the entire heart with some overhang. Disregard my excessive use of fondant in this step!
Carefully and loosely, roll the fondant onto your rolling pin, and starting at one end of the heart, unroll the fondant over it.
Using your fingers, gently begin pressing the fondant into all of the cracks and crevices of the Oreo Heart.
Once you have the basic shape, trim the excess fondant from around the base of the heart.
Now for the details.. I would say that this is the trickiest part of the project, but I promise it’s not that bad. And luckily, mistakes are VERY forgiving with this cake!
Continue using your fingers to shape the fondant around the oreo heart, smoothing as you go. Any intricate details, like the veining, from the mold will not show through the oreo heart and fondant, so you’ll need to recreate them. Set your heart mold next to your work surface so you can use it as a reference. If you happen to have cake decorating tools, they may come in handy. If not, just improvise with anything you have in your kitchen. Continue shaping the fondant to look like the mold. For the raised veins, I took pieces of the leftover fondant, rolled them thin, and applied onto the heart, following the pattern of the mold. I added my own indention where the major veins and arteries are, so they’d look a bit more “tunnel” like.
Obviously real hearts do not have a flat side as this one does, so if you are feeling confident about your cake skills, you can try to round the base of this heart, tucking the fondant in with it.
Do your best not to break the surface of the fondant, but if it happens, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll have a chance to cover it up later.
Once you are happy with the shape of your heart, it’s time to paint it. For this step I took a page straight from my Open Book Cake (see what I did there?). I used the same techniques and supplies I had used on the Bleeding Heart Cupcake…
In a small bowl, combine the clear piping gel with some drops of red gel food coloring. In another bowl, combine the piping gel with the red gel food coloring, and a drop or two of black.
Using a soft brush, paint the fondant with the piping gel, highlighting creases and edges with the darker mix.
Once complete, if you feel you’d like to see some blood pooling around the heart, you can use a Seedless Raspberry Sauce.
In a saucepan, cook the raspberry preserve over low heat. I worked with about a 1/2 cup at a time, and made more as needed.. it only takes minutes. Add a couple tablespoons of water.. this helps the texture remain sauce-like once it cools… instead of immediately turning back to jam. Once heated throughout, and smooth in texture, allow the sauce to cool for just long enough to become a bit sticky.
Spoon the raspberry ‘blood’ onto the arteries, dripping down the sides of the heart, and in a puddle around the base.
One important note… serve this cake chilled. If left out at room temperature, the Oreo mixture will begin to soften until it’s mushy. No one wants mushy Oreos!
Have a Horrific Valentine’s Day! Oh, and this cake would make the perfect Halloween dessert as well!
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